Cognitive Trajectories and Clinical Outcomes in Elderly Patients With Preoperative Cognitive Dysfunction

Preexisting cognitive impairment is common in many elderly patients who undergoing major surgeries. The number of surgical procedures in the elderly will increase dramatically as a result of the increased elderly population in the future. It has been suggested that preexisting cognitive impairment is associated with increased incidence of postoperative complications, decreased quality of life, and increased mortality. Preoperative risk assessment is becoming increasingly important because preoperative risk stratification allows the clinical team to forecast postoperative outcomes. Currently, the most common strategy to identify high-risk patients before surgery is assessment of single end-organ function. This tactic is most widely recognized by the American Heart Association's guideline for cardiac evaluation, but is also well described for pulmonary, hepatic, and renal organ systems. Little is known about the effects of pre-existing cognitive (or brain) function (perhaps the most vital human organ) on postoperative outcomes. Therefore, the present study evaluated whether patients with pre-operative cognitive impairment would have a more precipitous drop in cognitive function and worse outcome in geriatric surgical patients.